odyssey4, we stayed in Bad Wimpfen in 2005 at the Neckarblick Hotel overlooking the Neckar River. Very nice place just a 5-minute walk to the old town. The owners speak some English and they also have onsite parking.

www.neckarblick.de

Have booked the Hotel Hospiz in Tuebingen, but won't be going until September so I can't give it a personal recommendation right now. However, the price and location seemed good and they have parking.

http://www.hotel-hospiz.de/

Hope this helps.

Bettyk,
Thank you for the links. I will look into these. Hope you have a great trip. I think I've read a few of your posts, and maybe a trip report. Thanks for the feedback. It certainly helps others!

odyssey4, I'm glad to see bettyk could help with hotels - since I live in Stuttgart I have only made day trips to Bad Wimpfen and Tuebingen. These are two great places but very different in atmosphere - Bad Wimpfen is very small and picturesque with lovely views of the Neckar Valley while Tuebingen is a much larger, lively college town with a gorgeous medieval quarter. Have fun deciding!

Hausfrau, thank you for responding. We intend to see the Mercedes Benz factory and museum while we are there. I do not have a confirmed factory tour yet- we were told to fax our request for a tour to them. Tubingen sounds fun from your description, but we will just be there for one night as we make our way south to Meersburg and then to Switzerland. So, if you can recommend someplace convenient for the Mercedes part (this is for my husband) I would appreciate it.

The Mercedes museum is east of downtown in Bad Cannstatt. Priceline has a list of nearly hotels, ranked by distance from the museum:

http://tinyurl.com/3cfc4k

If you would like something smaller, you could try in one of the Remstal villages to the east, along the wine route (roads B14 or B29). Fellbach sounds charming, with a hiking path through the vineyards.

Enzian, you are here to help me once again. I am so grateful. I will search those cities. Stuttgart was not initially on our list, but then someone suggested it to my husband, so now the itinerary changes again.
I think we're making progress. I am actually still trying to decide between Tuebingen and Strasbourg. We would only go to Tuebingen if we do the Mercedes Museum. I think Strasbourg may be the better option after Beilstein. We are set on Beilstein at Hotel Haus Lipmann for the first night.

It looks like your trip is shaping up nicely. From the photos of the Mercedes museum I have seen, it looks amazing. We will be near there ourselves for a meeting, but won't have time for a visit.

Let's hope the weather improves by the end of June. It's snowing in parts of Switzerland now--the Zermatt webcams who it covered in fresh snow!

Lets all hope for great beautiful sunny hiking weather, as my husband and I will be in The BO (Grindelwald) at the same time as well:)

My husband checked the weather for several cities today. Most seem cool and rainy. We live in Arizona so we are already warmish- over 100 degrees a few times this year already.

Hi odyssey4, I just got back from a day trip to Tuebingen and wanted to mention that I think it would be a good 45 minute drive to get to the Mercedes Museum from there, but it would be a nice alternative to staying in Stuttgart proper (where there really aren't any charming hotels to speak of!). We ate at the Weinstube Forelle (http://www.weinstubeforelle.de) and had a fabulous traditional Swabian meal.

any hotel recs in Tuebingen?